THE DEMONIZATION OF JUAN N. "CHENO" CORTINA IN U.S. MEDIA

(Ed.'s Note: Throughout the late 1800s, newspaper reports about Juan N. Cortina filled American newspapers. Many of them were filled with fantastic tales of his "crimes," even some which were committed when he was nowhere near the scene of the events. In this article taken from the St. Luis Republican and reprinted in the Atlanta Constitution, Cortina is made out to be the devil incarnate. Such was the fare written about the son of the largest land grant owner, his mother María Estéfana Goseascochea de Cavazos y de Cortina, granddaughter of Salvador de La Garza, original land grantee of the Espiritu Santo Grant which covered 261,275 acres. The image of the heir to a large portion of that grant remains a part of the made-up mythology surrounding Cortina up to this day.)

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS, October 7, – A dozen years ago the name Juan Cortina was familiar to American newspaper readers. He has just been released from jail after 12 years confinement. He was the terror of the Rio Grande. He defied the United States Army, the Texas rangers, the customhouse guards on both sides of the river, and the sheriffs both in Texas and Mexico. In Texas he claimed to be Mexican, and in Tamaulipas he claimed to be an American.

Cotina was by profession a bandit and robber, but he devoted a good deal of his spare time to working up revolutions in Mexico, practicing piracy at Padre Island and Point Isabel, making love to the pretty girls in the vicinity of Brownsville and Matamoras (sic), getting up horse races in Texas, bull fights in Mexico, bucking faro in San Antonio, and rescuing his followers from the jails of Texas and Tamaulipas. Cotina was an international character. He was a law unto himself. He had no respect for the rights or life of any man, if such rights or life interfered with his purpose. 

There was never an effort made to keep a record of his murders. From 1861 to 1870 he was the Napoleon of the Rio Grande. His law was law. In consequence of the Civil War and the afterclap of Reconstruction, there was practically no government in the border counties of Texas from '61 to '70.

Cortina maintained about 100 daredevil followers, mostly Mexicans. They were always well mounted. They divided their time between Texas and Tamaulipas, and were impartial in their treatment of gringos and greasers. Cortina was the absolute ruler of the band. Once in a while a bold and ambitious lieutenant would exhibit rebellious tendencies, but a shot from Cortina's ever ready pistol forever ended insubordination. He was as cruel and heartless to his own followers as the people on whom he preyed.

He killed without hesitation, stile without scruple, carried off young girls at pleasure, and sent them back to their parents at will; killed their parents if they complained, burned their houses and ran off their stock.

He operated in Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, Zapata, Webb, Dimmit, LaSalle, Encinal, Duval, Nueces, San Patricio, and Refugio counties, in Texas, and frequently made incursions within 50 miles of San Antonio and 100 miles of Galveston.

He considered that every man engaged in stock-raising was his servant. He shipped beef, hogs, horse and mules regularly to New Orleans during the war. He dealt impartially with the federals and confederates. 

New Orleans boats in the employ of the government made regular trips to Point Isabel to receive cargoes looted by Cortina from the people of Texas and Tamaulipas. He became a strong union man toward the end of the great struggle. 

He accepted confederate money in payment for his plunder before the capture New Orleans by the union forces, and the paper of the of the confederate snot panning out well, the bandit became a wrathy and acted as guerrilla in the union interest on the Rio Grande when not otherwise employed.

Anything like a record of Cortina's deeds on the Rio Grande border from 1853 to 1870 would fill a volume. He is a native of Texas, though while he was in full operation it was generally believed that he was a Mexican. He was born about about 20 miles from this town (Brownsville), and his parents were very respectable Mexican people. His mother died only a few years ago. 

Cortina was a hard citizen from an early age. It is stated that he was only 14 years old he hacked a first cousin to death with a pocket knife because the cousin refused to swap horses with him. Another cousin and elder brother of the victim threatened vengeance and Cortina fled to Reynosa, in Tamaulipas, to the house of his mother's sister. 

He was not long there when he quarreled with his uncle, shot him, and again crossed the river into Texas. He went directly to his father's ranch, but before reaching there he encountered his cousin, the brother of his first victim. He killed him. and led his horse to his father's door. A brother of Cortina's mother was a priest, and administered to a little flock of Carrisistas. The priest just happened to be visiting his sister, Mrs. Cortina, when the youthful desperado arrived at his home. 

The reverend uncle joined with the lad's father and mother in reprimanding him. He wouldn't accept the lecture, but instead abused his parents, and struck the priest with his riding whip. To the Mexicans of those days – in fact, to the rural Mexicans still – the person of a priest is sacred. So when Juan Cortina assaulted a priest, not only the neighbors, but his own family gave him up as lost.